Wednesday, May 25, 2011

in case you are curious

Here is what the formula looks like that we buy with the money sent to us. We buy about $640 worth a month (depending on the number of babies). The formula is good quality from Europe. The cans are smaller than in the states and it is mixed differently than the formula from the states. One can lasts one baby about 3 days. It costs about $70/month to feed a newborn. A farmer in Kaziba maybe makes $40/month in total (hence why so many babies are brought to Kaziba after their mother's die).

If you look closely you will see the corner of a bag of powdered milk below the boxes of formula. There isn't fresh milk here (yup, our girls have been drinking full fat powdered milk, "nido", for 4 years..). Years of insecurity has greatly diminished the amount of cows in this area of Congo. There are cows in Kaziba, but not enough. So we buy three big bags of powdered milk (that is fortified) a month. Each bag is about $120-150 per 25 kg sack.

New Here?

We are an American family living in Mwanza, Tanzania after 2 years of life in the States. Michael is a country director for an NGO which serves school children. Holly is a pediatric nurse practitioner. Before our time in the States, we lived in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo for 4 1/2 years. We have four little girls who are 7, 5, and four year old twins. Back in DRC, we started a small charity called Reeds of Hope. Originally we started it to support the small baby home where our girls spent the first 5 months of their lives. Since that time, we have grown and changed in our mission and focus. Now we are working hard to transition to a model of family support, reunification, and alternative care.

Please do not use any photos on this blog without permission. All photos are ones taken by the author of this blog and not for use elsewhere without permission. Thank you.

Header photo on far left is used with permission from Channel Initiative and is from eastern DRC. Photo on right is from Mwanza, Tanzania.